"No one wants to introduce new taxes, if we could fix social care without doing it we would"
MP Dan Poulter says the Government's new social care plan is the "right way forward"
Parliament will vote today to pass a 1.25 percent increase in National Insurance, which will be taxed as a health and social care levy. Ahead of the vote, we spoke to Dr Dan Poulter, Conservative MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich.
"We'll all be paying a little more tax to help fund the NHS and the social care system for the future", he says.
The Health and social care levy will appear as an increase in National Insurance from April 2022 and as a separate tax in 2023. The plan announced by Boris Johnson stipulates that the money raised will go towards raising £36 bn. for the NHS and for social care in the next three years.
The vote in Parliament is unlikely to be smooth, with many Conservative MPs voicing their discontentment over the proposal which breaks a manifesto promise made by the party to desist from breaking the triple lock tax system. Dr. Poulter says he will back the Government's plan as it is the right way forward.
"For me, as someone who is not just an MP representing the people of Suffolk, but also as a doctor who wants the best for my patients, I believe this is the right way forward", he says.
He witnessed the strain the pandemic put on the NHS first-hand and says that this tax is the best way to help the health service catch up on its back-log of cases and reboot the social care system. His view however, is not the only prevailing one in Conservative ranks.
When asked about the resistance to the plan from the Opposition and some of his own Conservative peers, he says that it was never going to be easy to implement a new law like this.
"No one wants to introduce new taxes, if we could fix social care without doing it we would" he adds.
The ultimate goal of the plan, according to Dr. Poulter, is the creation of a more robust NHS and social care system that is fit for the purpose.
"It was never going to be easy to work a way forward about how we raise money to pay for the NHS and social care in the years to come but ultimately making sure that we have a health service and social care system that is fit for purpose is what I care about", he says.